Cop-tube.



H. KBLLERMAN.

cor TUBE.

APPLIOATION FILED JAN. 22, 1910.

1,029,065. Patented June 11, 1912.

HENRY KELLERMAN, 0F MAYFIELD, PENNSYLVANIA;

COP-TUBE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J une 11, 1912.

Application filed January 22, 1910. Serial No. 539,589.

To all whom itmay concern:

- Be it known that I, HENRY KELLERMAN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Mayfield, in the county of Lackawanna and State ofPennsylvania, have invented cer tain new and useful Improvementsin Cop-Tubes, of whichthe following is a specification.

My invention relates to quills whereon silk is wound when shipped, andthe objects of my invention are to provide a quill of paper or likematerial which shall be extremely light and so cheaply manufactured thatit may be thrown away after the silk has been unwound therefrom, thequill being of such form that the yarn may be pulled freely from thetapered surface which forms the base of the quill.

The quill ordinarily usedtoday consists of a hollow spindle of wood.having a solid base. These quills are of considerable relative weight,and cost so much to manufacture that they cannot economically be thrownaway after the silk has been unwound therefrom, but are returned afterbeing emptied, to the manufacturer, at considerable cost for expressage.Further than this, these wooden quills are so relatively thick that alarge proportion of the cop consists in the wooden quill itself. Papertubes have also been slightly used, but in these, the taper is veryslight and uniform from the top of the tube to the base thereof, makingthe tube practically straight. This is a very serious fault, as it makesit diificult to use up all the silk on the quill, because of the factthe silk on the base of the tube must be pulled over the silk lyingunder it, in-

stead of pulling freely from a tapered surface. These paper tubes havealso had to be provided with solid bases. The cost of these bases andthe weight of the material therein has prevented the paper tubes frombeing satisfactory, and prevented their coming extensively into use,particularly where silk and other valuable yarns are to be woundthereon.

In order to avoid the disadvantages heretofore referred to and incidentto theuse of both wood quills and paper quills, as heretoforemanufactured, I have devised the quill shown in the drawings and nowtobe described.

For a full understanding of the invention and the merits thereof, and toacquire a knowledge of the details of construction, reference is to behad to the following'description and accompanying drawing, in which thetube is shown about twice its ordinary size.

In these drawings: Figure 1 is an elevation of my improved quill or cop;and Fig.

2 is a longitudinal section thereof.

Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the followingdescription and indicated in all the views of the drawing by the samereference characters.

Referring to these figures, 2 designates a quill made of paper, tubularin formation and slightly tapering. The lower end of the tube from thepoint 3 is expanded gradually outward to formthe base 4, the face ofthis base being preferably slightly corrugated, as at 5. It will be seenthat the taper of the body portion of the quill is very slight and thatthe angle of the outer face of the base to the axis of the tube is muchgreater than the angle of the face of the body portion of the tube tothe axis.

It is to be noted that the quill is hollow from one extremity to theother and that it is composed of practically one thickness of material,from end to end, the base portion of the quill .being no thicker thanthe body portion thereof. The quill may be formed of paper or likecomposition, and may be either made in one piece, pressed or rolled'intoshape, or two or more pieces fastened; together, or it may bev made of anarrow strip of 'paper wound spirally into the shape shown. Ido not wishto limit myself to anyspecial means of making the cop tube, nor do Iwish to limit'myself to the exact form of corrugations 5-upon thetapering base 4:.

It will be seen that the quill formed as above described is extremelylight and extremely cheap. Millions of these quills are used everymonth, and hence it will be seen that a saving in-weight and an economyin the construction of these-tubes is of very great moment. The form ofquill devised by me may be so cheaply made that the quill need not bereturned to the manufacturer after the yarn or silk has been unwoundtherefrom, and on account of its extremely light weight, the quill maybe shipped very much less expensively than quills made of wood and whichhave a relatively solid and weighty base. It will also be seen that myimproved quillwill hold more silk than wooden quills of the samecharacter, the wooden quill having a thick wall, Whereas the paper quillhas a very thin wall, thus making the finished cop nearly solid silkinstead ofits-being about half wood. Thus the loom will run much longerwithout requiring the shuttle to be replenished. Furthermore, thepeculiar shape of my quill is such that the yarn is pulled freely from atapered surface down to the last course.

It will be obvious that by making the quill of paper having a uniformthickness from end to end that the cost is reduced very materially, bothin the manufacture of the quill and in the transportation charges, andindeed making it so cheap that after it has reached the manufacturer itmay be destroyed. Further than this another advantage secured by thequill being of paper and having a uniform thickness throughout is thatthe paper being slightly yielding the tube can be forced more or less onto the spindle as may be desired. This is important in actual practiceas a wooden quill or cop tube cannot be so forced on to the woodenspindle. There are constant slight variations due to wear andv particlesof waste which will not permit a quill having an unyielding base to beforced on to the spindle so as to accurately space it where the traverseis set to commence winding. My paper tube may be adjusted accurately andthis is of the utmost importance in fine work where a hundredth part ofan inch makes a great difference. Another great advantage residing in mytube over the wooden tube or quill "is that a wooden quill will surelywarp, and the very slightest curvature in the quill makes it impossibleto fit it upon the tapered'spindle, making reboring necessary and makingit of course imperative that the silk upon it shall be removed. If,however, my improved tube should warp slightly it can be still forcedupon the spindle and will hold as well as ever.

I am aware that paper quills have been put upon the market and used tosome extent. These quills have a uniform and very slight taper from topto bottom. They do not have an enlarged base and are therefore open tomany objections. One of these objections is that when nearly empty theyarn or silk must pull off over a part of the silk already upon thetube. Thus at the end of the traverse, near the large end of theuniformly tapering tube of paper, the strand of silk must pull over thewound silk above it, and in weaving especially when using silk of afuzzy nature or con.- taining flecks the strand will'almost surely catchand break. In weaving silk the looms are run at a rate of speed whichdraws the silk from the quill at about two hundred yards per minute witha shock at each reversal of about 200 timesper minute. These shocksnearly always loosen the silk at the large end of a uniformly taperingtube so that the silk collapses and becomes entangled, making itimpossible to use all of the silk from a plain tapered tube.

The faultsabove mentioned have always prevented uniformly tapering papertubes Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, byaddressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, I). C.

